20091027

AIPAC rival 'J Street' tied to Qatar, George Soros

Washington - A new Jewish lobby that claims to be supportive ofIsrael has been linked to Qatar.

A former Israeli diplomat has asserted that J Street has been connected toQatar through the U.S. public relations firm of Fenton Communications.
Lenny Ben-David, a former diplomat and now consultant, said J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami, a senior vice president at Fenton until the lobby's establishment in 2008, could have been involved in a March 2009 project by Qatar to undermine support for Israel in theUnitedStates.

Ben-David said J Street's 160-member advisory board included those listed as foreign agents for Egypt andSaudiArabia. His letter also cited J Street's ties with U.S. billionaire George Soros, said to have long sought to undermine the traditional pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

From Ben-David's open letter to Ben-Ami: "So, it appears that Soros has created an organization that competes with AIPAC, calls for inclusion of Hamas, and opposes sanctions againstIran," Ben-David said. "His people sit on J Street's board, and his other offspring from the New America Foundation and the National Iranian American Council, work in lockstep."Read full article at the World Tribune